Alternative media are media (newspapers, radio,
television, movies, Internet, etc.) which are alternatives to the
business or government-ownedmass media. Proponents of alternative media
argue that the mainstream media are biased. While sources of alternative media can
also be biased (sometimes proudly so), proponents claim that the
bias is significantly different than that of the mainstream media,
hence these media provide an "alternative" viewpoint. As such, advocacy
journalism tends to be a component of many alternative
outlets.

Because the term "alternative" has connotations of
self-marginalization, some media outlets now prefer the term
"independent" over "alternative".

Contents

Propaganda
model

Edward S.
Herman and Noam
Chomsky proposed a concrete model for the filtering processes
(biases) of mainstream media, especially in the United States,
called the propaganda model. They tested this
empirically and presented extensive quantified evidence supporting
the model.[1] Authors
such as Louis
Althusser have also written in detail about the problems of the
mainstream press, and their writings have inspired the creation of
many alternative press efforts. Communication scholar Robert W.
McChesney, inspired in part by the work of Chomsky and Herman,
has linked the failures of the mainstream press primarily to
corporate ownership, pro-corporate public policy, and the myth of
"professional journalism." He has published extensively on the
failures of the mainstream press, and advocates scholarship in the
study of the political economy of the media, the growth of
alternative media, and comprehensive media policy reforms.[2]

Media

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Press

The alternative press consists of printed publications that provide a different or
dissident viewpoint than that provided by major mainstream and
corporate newspapers, magazines, and other
print media.

Factsheet
Five publisher Mike Gunderloy described the alternative
press "as sort of the 'grown-up' underground press. Whole
Earth, the Boston Phoenix,
and Mother Jones are the sorts
of things that fall in this classification."[3] In
contrast, Gunderloy described the underground press as "the real
thing, before it gets slick, co-opted, and profitable. The
underground press comes out in small quantities, is often
illegible, treads on the thin ice of unmentionable subjects, and
never carries ads for designer jeans."[3]